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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Charli Reviews: Every Day

Each
morning, A wakes up in a different body. There's never any warning
about who it will be, but A is used to that. Never get too attached.
Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. And that's fine - until A wakes
up in the body of Justin and meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. From
that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply.

Tori lent me Every Day last July and I never got round to
it. So, once she decided she really wanted it back, I had to decide whether to
mess up my reading schedule and slot it in, or give it back. Naturally… I chose
reading it. What can I say, I love David Levithan books!

So, the concept of Every Day intrigued me. When I read the
first paragraph of the summary, I thought “A” had a personality disorder, but
that’s not what it is. “A” wakes up in a different body every single day, with
a different partner, conditions and parents.

I loved the fact that every body he woke up in was
completely diverse. He’d been in the bodies of people across the LGBT+ spectrum,
blind people, obese people, people of various ethnicities. I think if it hadn’t
been this diverse the plot would have been really bland.

The plot with Rhiannon was unrealistic for me, even though
it was the main plot for the book. He was only in the body of her boyfriend for
a day, and yet he “fell in love with her”; and then went to meet her every day
in the other bodies.

I also had an issue with how unrealistic it was. Where did “A”
originally come from? Why was he always in the same few towns, an hour away
from each other? It just didn’t quite seem fathomable for me in a few different
ways.

However, I did love the concept, and the sub-plot of Nathan
trying to find out the truth about him. Levithan’s writing was gorgeous as
usual and each time I read one of his books I fall more in love with it.

Every Day was generally an intriguing read. I loved seeing
the diversity of the characters and how “A” coped throughout; as well as
several sub-plots. Although it seems awkward to me, I did also enjoy the
romance!

2 comments:

I read this last year and I was really disappointed with it. It wasn't what I expected it would be - I thought it would focus on why A woke up in a different body everyday, rather than the instalove so I was disappointed with the whole book.

Just finished this and loved how thoughtful the main character is. I also liked how realistic and uncompromising the other characters are - especially Rhiannon. She's sometimes shown to have petty prejudices eg when you can tell how embarrassed she is when A appears as an obese boy.A high concept book with heart - have you read The Time Travelor's Wife or One Day? Adult books with similar concept (both weepy at the end!)